QUALITY OF LIFE ASSESSMENT IN THE CLINICAL CARE OF DIABETES AND OTHER CHRONIC DISEASES: AN OVERVIEW OF CROATIAN EXPERIENCES

Patient reported outcomes are important in understanding the impact of medical conditions on the affected individuals, and in determining the effects of medical treatments. Since quality of life has been recognized as an important health outcome in chronic diseases, this paper aims to give an overview of studies that were carried out in Croatia in the health care field, and analyze them with respect to the contribution that quality of life indicators may have in treating chronic conditions. We searched Medline and Scopus (2004 to the present) for studies on quality of life issues carried out in Croatia in the field of health sciences. The published articles were analyzed with respect to 1) the quality of life concept used in the published studies, 2) the medical conditions studied, and 3) the type of studies including quality of life measures. Results of some studies have been presented in order to demonstrate how quality of life assessments have contributed to patient outcomes. The search findings are discussed in relation to methodological issues that might improve quality of life assessments in clinical care of people with chronic diseases.